


Everywhere You Turn

by logdate_unknown



Series: Zasr [2]
Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Animal Death, M/M, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protective Zim, Rats, skoodge also needs therapy I'm sorry to say
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-16
Updated: 2020-01-16
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:07:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22281580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/logdate_unknown/pseuds/logdate_unknown
Summary: Skoodge does not like rats.
Relationships: Invader Skoodge/Zim
Series: Zasr [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1569007
Comments: 7
Kudos: 53





	Everywhere You Turn

**Author's Note:**

> Y'all ready for more trauma? Yeah, me neither.   
> I think I have one more angst prompt planned and then I need to write some nice things dammit!!  
> Hope you enjoy!!

The distress signal made Zim's antennae shoot straight up into the air. Close by, GIR, who was carefully embellishing the wall with expressive grafitti, turned and let his mouth fall open. 

It sounded just like the intruder alert did, loud and screechy and insistent. Except this one was localized in his PAK, making the sound smaller and tinnier, like it was coming from a can. He twisted his head as far as he could to watch the source, lifting his arms and tightening his jaw.

It took him several moments to adjust to the noise and realize that it was the distress signal they'd all learned to use in the invader's academy. By activating it, the invader could alert the next closest Irken to their plight, and possibly save themselves.

There was only one other Irken who was nearby, and Zim had only seen him a little over an hour ago. He couldn't remember through his bewilderment at the noise and blinking light he craned his neck to watch attached to his back where Skoodge said he was going. Hadn't he said something about maintenance checks? 

In any case, Zim needed to move. If Skoodge was hurt... a chill ran through him.

Although, if Skoodge had managed to somehow activate his PAK's distress signal by accident, and there was no cause for alarm, Zim was going to be very, very cross.

The computer located Skoodge to be in the deepest, innermost levels of the base. That's right; he'd gone to do diagnostics on the machinations of the lower tiers. On his radar, Skoodge was near the generator, which brimmed with stolen electricity from the houses nearby. 

Zim watched the pink blip for a few moments, and saw that Skoodge wasn't moving. He looked closely, but it remained stationary, and didn't even shift a pixel. Concern and anxiety that he did not let surface to his face bloomed in his lungs.

He was sure now that Skoodge was somehow hurt or unconscious or otherwise incapacitated, and fearfully took the tube lift to the lower levels, releasing his PAK legs from the outset of the elevator as soon as he reached the generator room to carry him faster.

There weren't many places to hide in the wide, open room, rife with hard scaly cords. It resembled something microscopic; the chrome, hard-edged box embedded in the center of the floor where all the cords led looking just like a foreign entity embedded in hard, pink muscle.

Just to one side of the room, as soon as Zim took a step, was Skoodge, cowering. He was making himself scarce against the gradual curve of the wall, holding his hands over his face with his knees pulled up to his chest.

Zim stalked to his side on the unnecessary advantage of the PAK legs, and lowered himself beside Skoodge, masking his worry with anger. The steady beeping from Skoodge's PAK, to alert all those around him that he was in danger, became apparent as Zim stood beside him.

"What is this, Skoodge?!" Zim demanded harshly. "A distress signal, and yet you are in no danger! Tell Zim what-"

The cold whimper that Skoodge interrupted him with made Zim lower the sound of his own breathing, just to hear him.

"What?"

"Is it... is it still there?"

Zim scanned the room, scrutinizing it hastily before returning his gaze to the distraught irken.

"Is what still there? I see nothing."

In response, Skoodge lifted his eyes just so from his hands, so that Zim could see he'd been crying. Zim sat down beside him, almost reaching out to touch his shoulder but hovering there apprehensively instead. Then, apparently, Skoodge saw what he was so scared of, because he made a small, cut-off gasping sound before lowering his head back into his hands and keening out a high, involuntary whine.

"No, no no no no no..." He sobbed hoarsely, and curled up just that much more, squeezing his legs together and touching the backs of his hands to his knees so that he was as small as he could get. "Kill it, kill it kill it kill it," he pleaded Zim, until the mantra faded away into where he hid his face. The steady PAK alarm was his only voice, now, louder than any other sound in the room.

Other than... a squeak?

It was good that the generator only really sounded loud once you got up close to it. Otherwise, Zim's poor hearing would not have picked it up at all. But there was a definite squeaking.

His eyes followed the movement across the floor, of something that was more difficult to detect when it was still among the cords, and Zim spotted the offender. A gray rat, crawling among the low relief texture of the floor.

Zim was familiar with rats as in that they were vermin which needed to be eliminated. His face scrunched up, opening his mouth to stick out his tongue in disgust, and he let out a grouse to match the expression.

Without thinking much of it, he angled his back from the wall so that a PAK leg could emerge, and hovered the deadly tip above the rat, taking aim and narrowing his eyes.

The rodent let out a last mournful squeak as it was impaled, not standing a chance.

Zim let out another groan once he saw the mess. "Computer! Dispose of this filthy creature!" 

As he flung the leg up, the carcass flying upward, a tube shot down from the wall and sucked the thing up in midair. 

All was quiet again. 

Skoodge hadn't moved. Zim was left to question- had that been the thing he was so frightened of? It couldn't have been. Something so inconsequential and harmless, however filthy and unwelcome, frightening his Skoodge? 

It seemed impossible. Terribly inaccurate to Skoodge's character. If there was anything he wasn't, it was a coward.

Until Zim remembered the conquerer of Blorch. Home of the slaughtering rat people.

All at once it dawned on Zim, sinking down into his belly like a hard, cold stone. 

And he was bad at comforting others. Still, turning to his love, he touched the small space above his PAK, patting him.

"There, there," he said, stilted and unsure. "The vermin is gone, my dear. It's deceased and on it's way to the incinerator."

Skoodge uncurled himself, just a little. Zim inched closer, until he rested his arm across his back, placing his other hand on his opposite shoulder and patting reassuringly until Skoodge could finally look out again, frantically scanning the vicinity for others before looking at Zim with helpless gratitude as a soft, silent torrent of tears fell.

Zim would be sure to scan and patrol for more rats, soon, for Skoodge's sake. For now, he tried his best to make him feel more comfortable, getting up once to make sure that there were no more vermin, then returning to his side to hold his hand and lead him up to the surface.

Zim noticed Skoodge's hands were still shaking. It had taken him a while to stop crying, and even longer to stop shaking, but his hands hadn't stopped. Skoodge was looking at the television, but plainly seeing something else. It frustrated Zim, as he didn't know what to do to make him feel better, other than to hold his quivering hands in his own, pink gloves inside of black, and be close.

Had that really been helping?

It was time to talk about things. He could take the silence no longer.

"Are you still scared?"

"Uh, yeah," Skoodge replied, not looking at him.

"The rat is gone now," Zim said, confused. "I searched the base. There are no more like it. Please don't be scared."

Skoodge did look at him that time.

“It’s not that easy. Just because it’s gone doesn’t mean I’m… not upset anymore.” He looked shamefully down into his lap. “I’d been doing okay… I hadn’t thought of Blorch in a while. And seeing that… I’m, I’m…”

Zim laid into him, pressing his face into Skoodge’s side, under his arm. 

“Zim knows you can defend yourself,” he said in a low, gravelly voice, “but if you stay close to me, I will be sure that vermin never cross your path here. It should never have been here in the first place.”

Skoodge nodded absently. He was staring off into space, with a haunted look in his eyes. He started talking a few minutes later, without having been asked. The entire time, his eyes were elsewhere.

“They all cornered me before I even had the chance to build my base properly. I had to stay underground. There was only one exit, and I’d made sure the windows were unbreakable, but I had to listen to them scratching at the entrance right above me… all day. All night. They knew I was in there. And never stopped.”

Zim, daunted by the emotional display, just listened. He was not a good listener at the best of times, but having his lover in such distress certainly helped open his ears. 

“And every day I worried that they’d finally knock it in.” He took a breath and swallowed. “It was so hard to focus on what I was working on, with all the noise.” 

Zim waited for Skoodge to continue, and looked up, seeing a few silent tears had slipped from his companion’s open eyes. 

“What did you do?”

Skoodge smiled a little. “I… I killed them all. I hope. If I missed one breeding pair, by Irk, I would go right back there and slaughter them if I was brave enough. I can never go back.” He swallowed. “I constructed a beacon of light that drew them towards it… it took some time. I had to work through… all the clawing and screeching they made, just outside.”

He was shaking again. This wasn’t good. Zim didn’t want him to talk about this. But he was powerless against the fear Skoodge was exhibiting to him. 

“It never stopped. Until they were all gone. They went into the light and it vaporized them instantly. I try not to think of how many were still in the burrows.”

“Do you feel safe here now?” Zim asked, after a time. Zim’s fear was being caught and dissected, and it was very real. But Skoodge had had to live with a horde of those rats just above him- just larger. And smarter. The humans were disgusting, idiotic creatures, but at least they weren’t banging at his door and screaming at him. Well, if you didn’t include the Girl Scouts. Or Dib.

“I don’t know,” answered Skoodge, terribly uncertain. “Now that I know there are rats on this planet…”

“They’re tiny and pathetic,” said Zim, with a dismissive wave of his hand. “And stupid. We have defenses against things that are stupid. Things I had time to build.”

Skoodge relaxed a little. He leaned back into the couch and pulled Zim closer to him, who gratefully readjusted his grip. “Yeah. Earth is weird, but it’s not so bad.”

They started actually paying attention to the show. Skoodge kept reclaiming his hold, pulling Zim up closer and closer each time. Zim said nothing, leaning carefully into his arms, and holding him back. “Imagine how much better you will feel when Zim finally conquers this rock,” the invader spat without much vicar, too relaxed to feel very cunning and cool at the moment. Skoodge’s antennae lazily leaned toward his, searching for it. 

“Yeah,” said Skoodge, sounding absent, but with a whole host of thoughts only very slightly hampered by the presence of Zim. But after a while, they slowed. Of course there were a million things to be frightened of on this dirty planet. But, knowing Zim, it wouldn't have to be rats.


End file.
